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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-09-08, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011.Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Acting Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny ScottAdvertising Sales: Ken Warwick & Lori Patterson The CitizenP.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 887-9114 E-mail norhuron@scsinternet.com Website www.northhuron.on.ca Looking Back Through the Years CCNA Member Member of the Ontario Press Council The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $34.00/year ($32.38 + $1.62 G.S.T.) in Canada; $115.00/year in U.S.A. and $175/year in other foreign countries. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: norhuron@scsinternet.com September 6, 1950 Margaret Perrie of RR3, Brussels was awarded a medal of special merit for her talent and preparation in regards to a piano examination. Perrie received a letter informing her of the medal from the principal of the Western Ontario Conservatory of Music. The Brussels Lions Club held its annual Summer Frolic. The event was kicked off by a parade led by the Brussels Lions Boys and Girls Band before a softball game between Dublin and Brussels was played. The Brussels team won the game by a score of 14-4. Jackie Robinson, the man who broke professional baseball’s colour barrier, played himself in The Jackie Robinson Story, which was being shown at the Capitol Theatre in Listowel. Only one grade, Grade 9, was being taught at the Brussels Continuation School in 1950. The class was being taught by Mrs. Wilton. The rest of the students from the Brussels area would be heading to school in Wingham or Seaforth. Extensive improvements had been made to the Brussels School, including some redecorating and new lighting. September 10, 1975 On the Friday of reunion weekend for the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association, the skies opened up and created mudholes throughout the Blyth campground, threatening the 14th annual reunion, but sun on Saturday quickly remedied the situation. One of the event’s guest speakers was Murray Gaunt, incumbent candidate for the Huron-Bruce riding. Of the 17 entries in the fiddling competition, it was 15-year-old Kevin Reger of Elmira who took top honours. Anne Marie McQuaid of Seaforth won the step-dancing competition. Blyth Village Council was busy dealing with the issue of trailer applications once again when Doreen’s Beauty Shoppe wanted to place a mobile trailer in the village and use it as a commercial establishment. September 3, 1986 The 25th annual reunion of the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association was held in Blyth. The Citizen reported that in 1986 the reunion would have its biggest downtown presence ever with a main street parade on Saturday. Postal service to the Blyth, Auburn, Londesborough and Walton communities was set to suffer another setback as the result of a new truck route. The new route meant mail would only come to each of the aforementioned villages once a day. Excellent weather over the previous week resulted in a good white bean harvest. Yields were coming in at over 15 hundredweight per acre, where a normal yield in Huron County would be 13 hundredweight per acre. Teachers’ aides and secretaries across Huron County were potentially getting set to go on strike. The group had been in a legal position to strike as of Aug. 31 and had said it would order its employees to walk out as soon as Sept. 5. September 9, 2004 Frank Stretton was brought into East Wawanosh Public School as its acting principal, while the school was feeling the loss of 10 students that year. Huron County Warden Bill Dowson predicted future water problems throughout Ontario is the province didn’t restore its municipal outlet drainage grants. “We’re taking our whole drainage system backward,” Dowson told council at its Sept. 2 meeting. The 84th annual Belgrave, Brussels and Blyth School Fair was set to take place on Sept. 15 beginning, as always, with a parade of school children down Belgrave’s main street. At their Sept. 4 meeting, Huron County councillors expressed their frustration that the Connect Ontario program, a program aimed at making rural Ontario more competitive by upgrading internet connections, had been cancelled. “We get no respect in Toronto,” Huron County Warden Bill Dowson complained. Three contestants had entered the nomination process hoping to be crowned Ambassador of the Brussels Fall Fair. The contestants, Laurin Hoegy, Candice McLellan and Krista Shortreed, would present their speeches and hope for the best on Sept. 11 at the Optimist Train Station in Brussels. The Terry Fox Run was returning to Brussels after a successful first year in 2003. The event was being brought to Brussels by the Brussels Lions and the Brussels Optimists. Huron County Council was waiting on the results of a report being prepared that could have seen the speed limit on County Road 86 reduced. The reduction was the wish of residents of Turnberry Estates. The Blyth Festival Singers were in the midst of preparing for a performance where they would be performing Handel’s Messiah. The Notebook, starring Canadians Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams began showing at Goderich’s Park Theatre. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright A year of ‘lasts’ As students went back to school at Blyth, Brussels and East Wawanosh Public Schools this week they faced a unique situation. After 150 years of elementary school education in these communities, they will experience being the last students to mark annual school milestones like fairs, Christmas concerts and graduations in those schools. By this time next year, students from these schools will be attending different schools. Some will stay relatively within their own extended community, attending Hullett Central, in the case of Blyth or Grey Central in the case of Brussels. Others will attend the new Maitland River Elementary School or, if it’s not ready, either Wingham or Turnberry Central Public Schools. Grade 7 and 8 students will be off to F. E. Madill Secondary School to help bolster attendance there. The students themselves will probably not find the last milestones of their school significant, but for parents, particularly those who went to these schools themselves, there will be many poignant moments between now and graduation. And for the community, with less than a year before their schools close, it’s time to start thinking about the future. How can communities counteract the loss of these valuable institutions? How can they best take advantage of the fact these large buildings will be available for alternative uses? There will be many sad moments in the next 10 months, but we can’t afford to dwell on them. We need to plan to seize the future, while celebrating the 150-year history of our schools. — KR The wrong solution Among the many issues Ontario is facing, the teacher surplus is a small one, but the solution proposed by Premier Dalton McGuinty last week is still the wrong one. McGuinty proposed having prospective teachers attend two years of teachers’ college instead of one, as a way of making them better teachers when they do enter the profession. While having well-prepared teachers should be a goal, there are better ways than just loading an added year of schooling (and the accompanying debt) on the backs of young teachers. It’s not the first time extra schooling has been used as a way of thinning the ranks of young people seeking to enter the profession. Back in the 1970s the government decided elementary teachers should have a university degree rather than a year of post-secondary training, before entering the profession. It was a missed opportunity then, and it’s a missed opportunity now. How much of what an elementary school teacher learns in four years of general arts university education really matters in their ability to teach elementary – particularly primary – students? Would they not be better off studying in a specialized teaching program in which they would be taught the information they really need to pass on to younger students, while having an intensive apprenticeship in learning teachings skills? In three, or at most four, years, they could probably come out more equipped to teach young students than they will with the six years of education the government proposes. There would also be the added benefit of having teachers who chose to be teachers from the beginning. Many people now become teachers because they didn’t know what they wanted to do at the end of high school, so took a general arts degree and realized their best option after that was to take a year of teachers’ college. While the cost of the Premier’s proposal falls mostly on the backs of students at the moment, one wonders how expensive it might be for the education system in the long run. Down the road, surely teachers, and their unions, are going to want to be compensated for that extra year of education — after all with up to six years of post-secondary schooling they’re starting to approach the commitment doctors make. Simply tacking another year of schooling onto the requirements for elementary teachers is a lazy solution. The real answer is better, not more, training. — KR & Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise.